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In Somnia Part 4: The King

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In Somnia

Part 4: The King

I had it all. Everything I ever wanted. The
wife, perfect. The son, my pride and joy. The house, white picket fence
suburban bliss. Everything was perfect. The way I dreamed they would
be. I was living the American dream.

But dreams have a nasty habit of going wrong.

I began to suspect things were going wrong.
Slowly but surely things began to slip out of my grasp. I became
powerless against the tide of change. I sit now in the wreckage. I
wonder what went wrong.

I guess things were going as well as they
possibly could. It took eight years for me to get over Alice's death.
My son couldn't accept it at first, but he was only seven. I think at
that age, losing his mother would stick with him. But I think the
therapy helped him cope. A year ago, I married Melissa. Adam was happy.
I even let him be my best man.

A few months after that, I got a big
promotion. I became the assistant to the vice-president of sales of the
company. But the promotion had it's down side. It meant longer hours.
Less time with Melissa and Adam. I was able to buy us a new house in a
great neighborhood just twenty minutes outside the city, south of Wake
Point. In the summer, you can smell the ocean. It's in that very
moment, late in the evening, as the sun sets that I feel content. We
would go out on the deck in the yard and sit and talk about what
happened that day. We would laugh and be a family. Life was perfect
during those moments.

As the distance between us grew greater,
they began to have an affair. My wife. My son. It started out small. I
would come home late from work and they would just be coming home from
the movies or dinner. I thought it was just bonding. How could I be so
blind? From a psychological point of view, it made sense. I wasn't
giving her the love she needed, and for him, well he needed a mother
figure to replace Alice. A Freudian nightmare… she's thirty-two… he's
almost sixteen. How could they do this to me?

I didn't know for sure until today. I
decided to play hooky and ditch work. I took an hour, got some
breakfast then came back home, knowing they would be surprised to see
me. We would go to the beach and go fishing, have a nice family day on
a bright summer afternoon. Maybe go take the jet ski I got Adam for his
birthday last year for a ride.

I came home and walked in the door. They
weren't downstairs. They must be in the kitchen. Nope. They were
upstairs. Maybe they went back to sleep? As I go up the stairs I hear
laughing, from my son's room. I stand in front of the door as a feeling
comes over me. I hear the passionate moans Melissa used to make when we
first got married. I backed away from the door until I hit the opposite
wall and my knees gave out. I slid down the wall onto the floor and I
broke down completely… quietly. I began to weep and shake. Time passed
and I could still hear them. I went downstairs and to the bar on the
deck. I drank a shot of whiskey, but I threw it up. I began to control
my shaking. My tears stopped. I was still, silent, calm.

Then I saw them come downstairs. I rubbed
the tears and vomit from my face with my sleeve and I went inside. I
went about the day exactly as I had planned it. They were surprised to
see me. They were happy, but not nervous. Why should they be? I
convinced her to skip work and him to blow off his friends so we could
have a family fun day.

We got in the car and I started driving… I don't know where. Adam was excited. He said, "Where are we going, dad?"

"I don't know. Where do you want to go?"

I finally broke. I started crying. Melissa put her hand on my shoulder and I shrugged it off. "What's wrong, honey?"

"I'm just happy we are all together."

I turned onto the interstate. Traffic was light. It was still early. They looked with concern at me and I got a hold of myself.

"So, you guys decided to sleep in today?"

They had nothing to say. My son looked out the window. Melissa said nothing.

"We're going to the beach."

Adam said, "We didn't bring our bathing suits or towels."

"We won't need them."

The highway curved around the tree line and I could see the beach. I rolled down my window. I could smell the ocean.

I turned to Melissa and said, "Do you always do it in Adam's room, or do you fuck in our bed too?"

I jerked to wheel to the left to get a good
angle to go threw the guard rail on the right. When we hit the rail,
the car went threw it, flipped over and rolled down the rocks. I
couldn't hear their screams, I couldn't feel the glass cutting me, all
I could think about was how I was the only one with a seat belt on.

We landed on a remote part of the beach. Now we could be alone. Everything was perfect again.